Brooklyn Park Launches Second Alternative Response Team for Mental Health Calls
The Brooklyn Park Police Department has expanded its Alternative Response Team (ART), which responds to 911 callers experiencing mental health issues.
Brooklyn Park Police Inspector Elliot Faust says they’ve added a second team, which allows for expanded operating hours.
“The money that the citizens are putting into this — these folks are working very efficiently and very hard, and we’re seeing some fruits of our labor,” Faust said. “It’s just going to create a healthier society, a healthier community.”
Through the ART model, social workers and health professionals respond to 911 calls for issues related to mental health.
The Brooklyn Park Alternative Response Team answers calls in a van equipped with police radios.
“Our priority is to respond to calls related to mental health, to substance abuse, homelessness, other social service needs,” said Nils Dybvig, the team’s main social worker in an interview with CCX News in May. “Our goal is, as much as we can, go out and resolve somebody’s problem so that they don’t have to keep calling 911.”
According to Faust, mental health calls-for-service saw the first decline in a decade when the program was rolled out.
“We were seeing a steady incline of mental health calls,” he said. “We’re cautious about the celebration there … I think we’re going to see another reduction.”
Faust said Brooklyn Park’s officers rely heavily on help from the team during mental health calls.
“I don’t think they could live without it,” he said. “Most of them, they don’t want to do this job without that [help].”
